Four years after their last effort, 2013's Trail of Death, Germany's Wizard are back with their 11th album, Fallen Kings. It's a very similar effort to the last couple of records with perhaps a bit less keyboards, fewer attempts at being epic and no misguided effort at creating a listenable ballad. If you've heard one Wizard album, you've heard Fallen Kings, but don't take that to mean it isn't any good. This band has a formula that works, so why deviate? "Liar and Betrayer" is the obligatory opening speed-fest and is quite similar to "Betrayer" from Head of the Deceiver. There is the usual mix of mid-tempo and faster tracks throughout the album and the songwriting is consistently good. The lyrics do tend to get a bit overwrought, however, and there is plenty of cheese to go around on songs like "Father to Son" and "You are the King."

Overall, Fallen Kings is a strong effort from Wizard that doesn't match albums like Odin, but the tighter songwriting is a noticeable improvement. Fans of the band, and crunchy Power Metal in general, can pick this one up safely.